Sparks fly at Fontana

Tuesday

Mar 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

The Sprint Cup series takes a break this coming weekend for the observance of Easter Sunday but will race at Martinsville Speedway on April 7th. Judging from the intense emotion that erupted at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., it might be an extremely good time for a break in the schedule.

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The Sprint Cup series takes a break this coming weekend for the observance of Easter Sunday but will race at Martinsville Speedway on April 7th. Judging from the intense emotion that erupted at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., it might be an extremely good time for a break in the schedule. Kyle Busch gave Joe Gibbs Racing Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series wins there. The Huntersville-based JGR organization saw their other driver, Denny Hamlin, suffer a crushed L1 vertebra after a wild last-lap crash with Penske Racing's Joey Logano while battling for the win. While surprise victor Busch bowed to a cheering front stretch crowd, Logano and Hamlin sat idle in crashed cars, assessing the situation. Hamlin immediately radioed his crew that he was hurt. An unexpected side story was developing that no one saw coming. Tony Stewart had Logano blocked on pit road wanting a piece of him. He felt Logano continually ran him low on the track and by the third time, enough was enough. He darted out of the car and began swinging. Crew members from both teams were everywhere. Some of Danica Patrick's crew (a team owned by Stewart) entered the fray to get Stewart off of Logano. Some 30 minutes later, Stewart calmed slightly and addressed the media. It didn't take long to get his temper boiling again. "…For a guy that has been complaining about how everybody else is driving here and then (for) him to do that it's a double standard," Stewart said. "He makes the choice. He makes the decision to run us down there and when you run a driver down there then you take responsibility for what happens after that. He is a tough guy on pit road as soon as one of his crew guys gets in the middle of it. Until then he's a scared little kid. Then he wants to sit there and throw a water bottle at me. He is going to learn a lesson…" Yes, words were exchanged last week at Bristol Motor Speedway between them, but Logano would never intentionally attempt to injure another driver or crewman. The two were driving hard for the win when his Ford broke loose, sending Hamlin bouncing off the outside wall hard into an inside barrier not equipped with SAFER wall protection. Before Logano knew of Hamlin's injury, he said, "We worked it last week. He probably shouldn't have done what he did last week, so that's what he gets."Logano explained his side of the Stewart crash as well. Further, team owner Roger Penske said yesterday he fully backs his driver. "I had to throw the block there. That was a race for the lead," Logano. "I felt if the 14 (Stewart) got underneath me, that was going to be the end of my opportunity to win the race, so I was just trying to protect the spot I had. I was actually pedaling, because I couldn't keep the 18 aligned. I was actually faster than the 18 getting our tires hooked up. And then I'm trying to stagger myself making sure I don't beat him to the line and then I had to block the 14 because I was pedaling it. I'll talk to him and we'll see what happens. I think he finished decent. We'll just talk about it some more."There's no way Stewart and Logano can avoid contact during 500 laps at Martinsville. Some fireworks could erupt between them, whether it's in the narrow back stretch garage area or somewhere on the track's half-mile surface.Stewart made it clear there will be no conversations between them. Lessons will come on the track. Hamlin, a driver with a history of back issues, slowly exited his car Sunday but collapsed to the ground. Track emergency workers took him to the infield care center and later helped prepare him to be airlifted to a local hospital. Dr. Jerry Petty of the Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Association will treat him when he returns to Charlotte in the next hours or days. Hamlin's road to recovery could be frustrating and painful. In the coming weeks, JGR's Nationwide Series drivers Elliott Sadler or Brian Vickers are available to drive for Hamlin should they be needed. Both are past Sprint Cup winners with plenty of experience between them.